Kate Fox
Kate works as a metallurgist on titanium alloys in aeroplane jet engines but in her spare time enjoys playing in several different local music ensembles.
She likes the challenge of attempting to tame the smallest clarinet in the clarinet choir (E flat) which has a reputation for inducing headaches!
Kate Hawkins
Jane Clayton
Jane is involved with a variety of local music ensembles including NSWO and Cirrus Clarinet Quartet. After a number of years exploring the stuff that life is made of, she has recently resumed her career in architecture and also does a little clarinet and saxophone teaching.
Amy Harker
Amy is a freelance musician, with a varied portfolio of work as an instrumental tutor and as a performer. She is a regular player in theatre shows and various ensembles. She has a 1st class honours degree in Music from York St John University. Amy is on the Blackwood Committee as group rep and also works on the group’s social media accounts and promotional material. In her spare time enjoys playing goalkeeper for a netball team.
Claire Revell
Claire started her working life as an instrumental teacher and is now a secondary school music teacher. She has played the clarinet since the age of 9 and was in Leicestershire Schools Symphony Orchestra when a pupil. She also plays bass clarinet, piano and saxophone, and studied music at Huddersfield University. She now plays in ensembles and local orchestras as well as in a soloist role in her spare time.
Phil Canton
Phil is an infrastructure engineer and plays clarinet in NSWO. In his free time, he enjoys playing bass guitar and relaxing with a pint of beer in his hand.
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Rob Cox
Rob studied Music in Bath specialising in early clarinet performance and history, he holds LRSM level performance qualifications in both Clarinet and Saxophone. He has played with numerous ensembles in the South West including stage shows and operas. Having spent 28 years in senior management roles at Boots the Chemist, Rob now works exclusively as a Clarinet & Saxophone teacher. He is a long serving member of NSWO and a previous bass clarinettist of Nottinghamshire Police Band.
Ray Hicks
Ray started to learn the clarinet and piano at the age of 9. Apparently he was caught tinkering on the ivories by the Primary school music teacher during break time and his love for playing music started from there! He reached the dizzy heights of Lead Clarinet in the Kent Youth Wind Orchestra enjoying many concerts and overseas tours to Germany, the former Yugoslavia and Canada. After a long break from playing he then joined the fantastic Nottingham Symphonic Winds family and currently play in the Nottingham Symphonic Wind Orchestra and more recently Blackwood Clarinets.
He work as a Business Development Director for a global consulting company in the Energy and Utilities Industry and in his spare time he enjoy getting outside on his mountain bike or hiking in the countryside. He is also trying to master the game of golf, but still searching for his first hole in one!
Matt Garton
Matt is a teacher to those with Special Education Needs. He has also been affiliated with Nottingham Symphonic Winds for 14 years and has also been part of many other local orchestras.
Angela Dickason
Angela was an electron microscopist before having children, after which she retrained to become a Teaching Assistant in a primary school which she did for nearly 20 years. More recently she managed to finally graduate to secondary school where she now works as a music administrator. She has played with the Nottinghamshire Police Band for several years and has played ‘in the pit’ for local shows.
Adam Blakey
Adam is a Mathematics PhD Student at the University of Nottingham, specialising in numerical methods and fluid mechanics. He’s learnt the clarinet, piano, and guitar from a young age but ultimately decided that the clarinet was the easiest to carry!
He has played in various groups in the North East from growing up in Newcastle, and has also played in groups in the USA and Singapore — but is now a member of more local groups including Nottingham Symphonic Winds, Blowsoc, and (of course!) Blackwood Clarinets.
In his spare time you’ll usually find him developing software or helping run a local Cub Scout group in Beeston.
Ros Farrow
Ros is a part-time GP and mum to two girls. She was handed the alto clarinet when she first auditioned for Nottingham Symphonic Wind Orchestra in 1990 and is still getting to grips with the instrument.
Steven Milner
Steve is a Consultant Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgeon at Royal Derby Hospital, and spends his working days fixing broken bones and painful feet. He started learning to play the clarinet aged nine years, and is still hoping to improve. He has played with Blackwood for over 5 years, on Bb clarinet initially and more recently alto clarinet. He also makes occasional appearances on Eb clarinet, but people generally prefer the alto as it causes less hearing damage. His spare time is used finding excuses to buy more DIY and gardening power tools, and trying to avoid sustaining injuries that would require the services of his work colleagues
Phil Smith
Phil started learning the clarinet at school at the age of 10, after a brief dalliance with the recorder. He has played regularly ever since, in groups large and small, finding it a blessed diversion from his day job as a computer programmer.
Over the last 10 years or so, Phil has concentrated on the Bass Clarinet. He enjoys exploring the full range of this beautiful instrument in Blackwood, Cirrus Clarinet Quartet, Nottingham Symphony Orchestra, Nottingham Philharmonic Orchestra and at home where nobody else can hear.
Joe Curtis
After studying clarinet, piano and flute at the Royal Academy of Music, Joe played for two seasons with the City of Belfast Orchestra (now the Ulster Orchestra) before deciding that the life of a professional musician was not for him. He entered industry working primarily in the early days of business computing before joining the Norcros group, holding a number of management roles and ending up buying his own business. He has conducted choral societies and the Burton Concert Band but in retirement plays mainly Bass and Contra Alto clarinet and various saxophones. He enjoys arranging a wide range of music for the Clarinet Choir.
Dave Oldershaw
Originally from an engineering background, Dave is the C.E.O of Windblowers Music Shop.
A founder member of both Blackwood and the Nottingham Symphonic Winds, Dave says “Playing the awesome Contra is not something any sane person would do – it’s like Harry Potter’s magic wand – you don’t choose it, it chooses you!”
His wife Margaret Oldershaw M.B.E is treasurer of Blackwood.